Testing customer involvement

The following considerations, when applied during method development, are likely to produce more robust, reliable, and transferable methods (a) the concerns of the customer (user) are considered in advance, (b) key process input variables are identified, (c) criticaTto-quality factors are determined, (d) several method verification tests are installed, (e) proactive evaluation of method performance during development is performed, (f) continuous customer involvement and focus are institutionalized, and (g) method capability assessment (suitability to be applied for release testing against specification limits) is established. 

Acceptance testing - generally involves the customer in making sure that what has been built is fit for purpose and meets their needs. Often the activity maps to a change in ownership or contractual milestone where the customer validates that... 

Testing and validation Customer involvement Execute tests with customer in toolshop 1.3, 5.1, 5.2 Statistical control. Measurement system analyses... 

Testing and validation Customer involvement Beside technical characteristics it is very important to get feedback from end users 1.1,1.3,1.4, 2.5, 4.1, 4.4, 5.1, 5.2 Design of Experiments Product testing... 

The key company of the new NDT- centre is HAPEG (Hattinger Priif- und Entwicklungs-gesellschaft), which operates a Computed Tomography system and offers service measurements on test samples of their customers [1]. The basic set up and technical details of this CT-system are presented in this paper. Details of the extension towards 3D visualisation, 3D-Tomography and the software involved are presented in a different paper [2]. 

An important part of the decision-making tool flow chart (see Fig. 1) is the redefinition of the specifications by the sensor customer after the surveying and testing of commercial sensor systems. This process almost always involves a downgrading of the expectations of the sensor customer, but it can also force a reaUstic evaluation of what sensor information really needs to be made available and at what cost. 

Quahty control testing of siUcones utilizes a combination of physical and chemical measurements to ensure satisfactory product performance and processibihty. Eor example, in addition to the usual physical properties of cured elastomers, the plasticity of heat-cured mbber and the extmsion rate of TVR elastomers under standard conditions are important to the customer. Where the siUcone appHcation involves surface activity, a use test is frequently the only rehable indicator of performance. Eor example, the performance of an antifoaming agent can be tested by measuring the foam reduction when the sihcone emulsion is added to an agitated standard detergent solution. The product data sheets and technical bulletins from commercial siUcone producers can be consulted for more information. 

As the use of RMs increases and international trade in these materials becomes established, it has become clear that they can be subject to high levels of import duty and delay when clearing customs. In 1998 ISO/REMCO established Task Group 6 to investigate the problems involved in shipping reference materials (and materials that are in the process of being made into reference materials, such as proficiency testing materials) across national boimdaries. 

The method development and optimization phase is completed with test method description drafted according to the method development results. The following method evaluation tests will continue with direct involvement of the customer (receiving laboratory). The goal is to check whether the developed late phase method performs adequately in different labs. 

While the protocol described above has proven very useful in its own right, it often serves as the first step in designing custom protocols for a team. Once a user is satisfied with the results returned by the ad hoc query, the next step is often to hardwire these queries into a protocol that provides one-button access to all the pertinent data for a project. Figure 5 shows such a protocol used to retrieve data for several assays in a Neuroscience project. This protocol highlights an additional filtering option that we make use of in many of our protocols. The text box ( selected cmpds from list ) (7) supports the input of a list of identification numbers (in our case either jnjnumber or batchid ). This allows data to be retrieved on select compounds as opposed to all those tested in the assays. This feature is very popular and involves the use of Perl within the Pipeline Pilot protocol. All this work is done on the server and the results are written to a SD file that can be downloaded to the desktop. At this stage either DIVA or Accord for Excel is typically used to view the files. 

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